Chris Cook was the only British swimmer participating in finals on the second evening of competition, and finished a creditable 6th in the final of the 100m breaststroke. Swimming in Lane 2, the Newcastle swimmer clocked 1:00.99, shy of his personal best from the semis but still under his pre-Montreal best, and was unable to get himself into the medal race happening in the centre of the pool.
Winner Brendan Hansen and runner up Kosuke Kitajiima produced the second and third fastest all time performances to take the top two podium places, with Hansen’s 59.37 just 7 one-hundredths of a second outside his own world record.Bronze went to Hughes Duboscq of France in 1:00.11. Against such a background a British medal success was always unlikely, but Cook acquitted himself well in his first major championship over the distance and has now established himself as Britain’s number one breaststroker, with an appearance in the 50m sprint to come.
Elsewhere, there were near misses for Kate Haywood and Liam Tancock in their respective semi-finals. Tancock in particular looked to have done enough to make his final in the 100m backstroke as he recorded a personal best of 55.07 to claim third place in his semi final, but a unusually fast second semi final, in which 6 of the eight swimmers progressed pushed him out to 10th place overall. He was in good company however, with Commonwealth Record holder Matt Welsh only managing 9th place to also miss out. Team-mate James Goddard just missed out in the morning heats.
Haywood meanwhile, will be ruing a missed opportunity form her swims, as she swam just outside her best and finished out of the finals paces. Her swim of 1:08.64 was a good effort and the Loughborough swimmer did not look out of place in her semi final, but was pushed out to 6th place in the rush for the wall.. A time in the region of her own British record would have secured a finals spot. Kirsty Balfour did not progress from the morning’s heats.
Elsewhere, David Carry improved on his 400m performance as he progressed through to the semi finals of the 200m event. He swam close to his best but did not quite have enough speed in the closing stages to make the next round and has now completed his participation in the championship.
There were no other British swimmer in action on the second night after Gemma Spofforth missed out on progressing form the heats of the 100m backstroke while 2003 silver medallist Katy Sexton withdrew. There was better news form Becky Cooke however, as the Glasgow swimmer qualified fastest for the final of the women’s 1500m tomorrow. Her swim of 16:15.69 was just over a second outside her British record and was two seconds clear of her nearest rival.